from pylab import *

data = arange(5)

fig, ax = subplots(3)
ax[0].plot(data, 'o-')
ax[1].plot(data, 'o-')
ax[2].plot(data, 'o-')

xticks(arange(5), ("apple", "banana", "pear", "peach", "potato"), rotation=30) # for ax[1]

# set ax[0]
ax[0].set_xticks(arange(5))
ax[0].set_xticklabels(("apple", "banana", "pear", "peach", "potato"), rotation=17)

# set ax[1]
for label in ax[1].get_xticklabels():
    label.set_rotation(30)


show()
